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As the connection between consumer products and cars tightens, changes in consumer software will have a greater impact on development projects for automotive markets. The rise of HTML5 is rapidly becoming a common language used in smart phones and other products, so many automotive designers are expected to adopt the new language.

As voice recognition becomes a de facto control technique for many tasks, there’s a growing move to handle some of the processing via cloud computing. This shift comes as software providers strive to make voice recognition even easier for automakers to deploy.

Ford Motor Co. is prepping a next-generation Transit van for the North American market as part of ongoing upgrades to its commercial vehicle (CV) lineup. Ford is also working with Azure Dynamics to develop a plug-in hybrid-electric Super Duty F-450/F-550, with production likely starting in 2014.

Daimler's engineering subsidiary will broaden its scope beyond the automotive industry if the agreed-upon acquisition by Paris-based AKKA Technologies of a 65% stake in MBtech is approved by regulatory authorities.

Caterpillar Inc. plans to build a new, $150 million engine manufacturing facility in India that will produce Perkins-branded 4000 Series engines. A company spokesman told SAE Off-Highway Engineering that Caterpillar is “still not in a position to publically announce the location of the new facility,” and he declined to share the plant’s expected production volume.

Researchers from Hyundai-Kia detail a disc-adapter-integrated hub to which the avoidance of braking heat and thermal radiation is applied. They also reveal that a weight reduction as well as a capacity increase on the front axle are achieved in comparison with the conventional wheel end module.

Innovation Network Corp. of Japan (INCJ), Hitachi Construction Machinery Co., Ltd., and Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. have signed a memorandum of understanding to integrate their forklift businesses into a new company to be established and operated mainly by INCJ.

Manufacturers of passenger cars are increasingly utilizing structural adhesives to provide added strength, durability, weight savings, and design benefits to vehicle body structure. And now the trend has extended to the commercial transportation market, according to an expert from Dow Automotive Systems.

In a highly unusual admission by an auto company, Lotus officials say bluntly that the first-generation Evora, introduced in 2008, wasn’t good enough; criticism has been heeded and evaluated, and major efforts made by the company to ensure the MY2012 car is much improved.

If applied as power source to electric drives on an implement, the ZF-­TERRA+ system can yield fuel savings and increased available power up to 5-10% on the tractor through better efficiency when compared to conventional hydraulic drives.

Steel is a staple in the design of heavy-duty equipment and vehicles that carry heavy loads for a living. But that doesn’t mean these machines can’t stand to shed a few pounds here and there, especially if it means increasing fuel efficiency or upping payload capacity at no penalty to durability. That's exactly what Caterpillar is pursuing.

BMW Group and Toyota Motor Corp. on Dec. 1 signed a memorandum of understanding for mid- to long-term collaboration on next-generation environment-friendly technologies. One definite area of collaborative research is next-generation lithium-ion battery technologies.